British Brown Ale Aberdeen Brown Ale (NewCastle Clone) AG

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The recipe as is will get you very close...but I would probably mash higher next time. My Northern Brown (Left Nut Ale) I mashed at 160 and it has that nice fruity...sweet tone to it.

I have read pretty much all of the posts contained in this thread. It appears to be a great recipe which I would like to use as my second attempt at AG. I know you posted the original recipe, but I have seen several posts with tweaks and adjustments suggested or made by others. Any chance you can post your most recent or updated recipe?

This brew will be for the SWMBO and I want to hit it right, so your recipe apprears to be the one to use. I would appreciate it greatly.

Thanks.

Salute! :mug:

Edit: I am looking to brew a 5 gallon batch and I have BeerSmith software available.
 
The pooch in the picture looks interested in your beer. Back away from the beer now poochie! :)
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I’m a newb in need of help. I have my first two batches of beer currently sitting in my fermenter (Hazzah)! Newcastle is one of my favorite beers, so one of the recipes that I used was this one. The only changes that I made were to cut the recipe in half, and leave out the roasted barley. I cut the boil time to 60 minutes and it has been fermenting at 66 degrees. I let it sit in the primary for a week, and it has been in the secondary for 4 days. My curiosity got the better of me last night, and I used a turkey baster to get a sample of the beer. I was surprised to find that it was very dark tasting, almost like dark chocolate or coffee. From the reviews that I have read, I know that the recipe is good, so I’m wondering what I did wrong. Is there anything that I could have done to cause such a flavor, or is it more likely that the store screwed up the ingredients? They ground everything up for me and had it in the same bag, except for the flaked corn, so I had no way of knowing whether or not they got it right. Also, what primer would you suggest for this batch? I’d appreciate any help you can give.
 
If you list everything you ordered, we can look that over. If the order looks fine and the shop indeed made a mistake, then that will be harder to identify.
 
If you list everything you ordered, we can look that over. If the order looks fine and the shop indeed made a mistake, then that will be harder to identify.

I'm writing this directly from the list that I gave them.

6.25 lb. Pale Malt US
1 lb. Flaked Corn
.5 lb Crystal Malt 20L
.5 lb. Crystal malt 60L
.5 lb. Crystal Malt 80L
.5 lb. Cara-pils/Dextrine
.25 lb. Chocolate Malt
.5 oz. Target
.25 oz. Goldings, East Kent
Whitbread Ale (wyeast labs #1099)

Like I said, the boil was 60 minutes. I batch sparged letting the first batch rest for 1 hour and the second for 15 minutes with a target mash temp of 152. The whole process went quite smoothly, unlike my wheat ale lol. If there was a miscalculation in the ingredients, am I correct in assuming that too much chocolate malt would have that effect? Thanks for your time.
 
I personally found the chocolate to be too stong also. I used UK Pale Chocolate malt, 300SRM, and still used less than the recipe listed as I substituted some for Special B. I've cut the percentage even lower in my latest batch. My beer has a strong coffee flavour.

I'm not hugely fond of that roasted flavour, I'm not sure I can detect any of it in the original NCBA, perhaps something like carafa special would be better, to get the colour and aroma but not so much roasted taste?
 
Thanks for the reply, Bosium. I'm with you on not being a big fan of the roasted flavor. It's not that the recipe isn't good, it's just not exactly what I was going for. I may try this one again without the chocolate malt. I'm still open to suggestions on what type of sugar to use when priming it.
 
Give it a little more time in the bottle, the flavours will meld together a bit more and it will drink better. As for priming sugar, it makes next to no difference. I use whatever I have to hand, table sugar is 100% fine.
 
Well I sampled a glass of this recipe and boy am I a happy brewer. Color was fantastic and the head on the beer was thick and creamy. The body was also a surprise to my better half and I. I think it still needs some time to carb up as it was only on tap for a few days (I force carbed for 1 1/2 days at 30psi) in the fridge. The 30psi was dropped to 12 and I gave it a few more days to stabilize.

I am very happy with this beer. I plan to pick up a 6'r of New Castle and do a side by side taste and appearance comparison. I believe my brew using BM's recipe will be superior to the NCNB. My only regret and it may be nothing, is that I did not filter this beer. It is still a bit cloudy, but I can certainly live with that, given all the other exceptional qualities this brew exhibits at this time.

Thanks to BM for a great recipe.

Salute! :mug:
 
It is indeed clearing and I had some friends over last night and the first comment I received was "WOW...... did you really make this stuff your self!"

So I did take credit for brewing it, but the real credit goes to all the posters in this thread and especially "BierMuncher" for the original recipe.

I now however have another problem...... I need to start brewing larger batches of beer, cause now the word it out that I make a decent brew!

Thanks to all!

Salute! :mug:
 
Here's my take on a 5 gallon batch extract recipe.

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.12 lb Pale Liquid Extract
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.41 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
0.41 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
0.41 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)


0.50 oz Target [11.00%] (60 min) Hops 21.4 IBU
0.25 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 2.4 IBU

1 Pkgs Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) Yeast-Ale


I haven't made this one, so use it at your own peril, but I started with Biermuncher's recipe and converted it in beersmith. I took out the Roasted barley because it came to 0.04 lb. That's like, 4 grains :p

Has anybody tried this yet? I was looking for a partial mash newcastle clone but I came across this link and thought I might try this extract recipe instead. It looks like it would be impossible to convert this recipe into a partial mash due to the amount of non-fermentables.
 
I brewed this last weekend and my Og came out perfect. All is going well in the primary, but I think when I was measuring my grains out I added too much roasted barley. Hints of coffee are hitting hard when I've tasted my hydrometer samples. The color is off a bit too, but I'm hoping that once it clarifies it will lighten up.
 
Alright, I brewed this ale on Sunday 10-4 all came out well. My og was 1.040 and I pitched my starter. I used whitebread yeast. Anyways, I was concerned on Tuesday b/c my airlock stopped bubbling, but I know that doesn't always mean that ferm has stopped. I took a gravity reading on Tuesday and I got 1.016. I took another today and it's still at 1.016. I have a packet of Nottingham, but I don't want to pitch it unless I have to b/c I want to keep the mild flavor from the whitebread yeast strain. What should I do?!

Thanks in advance,
J
 
You don't need anymore yeast. Leave it be. I'd let that thing sit for two weeks before racking to another vessel to clear up. 1016 is a decent finishing gravity for a brown...it will lend some residual sweetness. Nonetheless, you're likely to pick up another point or two over the next few days.
 
You don't need anymore yeast. Leave it be. I'd let that thing sit for two weeks before racking to another vessel to clear up. 1016 is a decent finishing gravity for a brown...it will lend some residual sweetness. Nonetheless, you're likely to pick up another point or two over the next few days.

Yep, that's what I'm reading. I think I'm going to do that. Also, can I add the gelatin straight into the primary after the two weeks are up? I don't think I'm going to have a secondary open.
 
Hey Biermuncher, I'm thinking of trying this as a 5 gallon partial mash with the following ingredients:

2.5 lbs. Munton's Extra Light Dry Extract
2 lbs. Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt
1 lb. Flaked Maize
1/2 lb. Briess 2 Row Carapils
1/2 lb. Briess 2 Row Caramel 20
1/2 lb. Briess 2 Row Caramel 60
1/2 lb. Briess 2 Row Caramel 80
1/4 lb. Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt

1/2 Oz. Target Pellets @ 60 mins
1/4 Oz. Kent Goldings @ 15 mins
Safale S-04 Yeast

Most is just half of the original, minus the roasted barley. Does this recipe look reasonable?
 
I'm going to try my above recipe with the exception of 1 oz of willamette hops instead of 1/2 oz of Target. I'll let you know in about 8 weeks how it turns out :p
 
HOLY CRAP BIERMUNCHER! This stuff is delicous! I just popped my first bottle after a week and it's fantastic. I didn't quite get the same color or flavor as you, due to accidentally adding about a 1/4 lb of roasted barley for 5 gallons (lol), but even though I jacked up the grain bill a bit, this is a great beer. It almost came out like a mild porter? I'll be posting some pics soon.

Thanks again sir,
J
 
So I got the ingredients to make this, and I can't remember if my LHBS was out and I substituted, or I just grabbed the wrong packet, but instead of Target Hops, I got Challenger.

Looking up hop profiles, I see for a substitute for Target it says "None really quite like it, maybe East Kent Goldings" which is what we have later in the boil.

So I decided to use the Goldings for the 60 min, and the 15 min, but I decided to add a 1/2 oz. of the Challenger at 30 min. I'm sure it will turn out, but I'm just wondering how different it's going to be, since this was an attempt at a clone.

Any thoughts?
 
So I got the ingredients to make this, and I can't remember if my LHBS was out and I substituted, or I just grabbed the wrong packet, but instead of Target Hops, I got Challenger.

Looking up hop profiles, I see for a substitute for Target it says "None really quite like it, maybe East Kent Goldings" which is what we have later in the boil.

So I decided to use the Goldings for the 60 min, and the 15 min, but I decided to add a 1/2 oz. of the Challenger at 30 min. I'm sure it will turn out, but I'm just wondering how different it's going to be, since this was an attempt at a clone.

Any thoughts?


Hmm, I'm not a hop expert, but I think you will be ok. Here's a pretty good hop substitution page http://http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-3.html
 
I transferred to Secondary tonight and Yeah! It tastes good!
Very similar to Newcastle.

If I hadn't added the extra 1/2oz. of Challenger, it would probably be dead on.
 
DSC09968.jpg


Been in bottles now 3 weeks and tastes great.
Little darker than it should be due to using too much roasted barley, but it still tastes wonderful. Thanks BM
 
Tis the season for a roaring fire and a fine pint of Brown. :mug:

I couldn't agree more. I'm just feeling the dark beers right now. I'm not too sure why considering I live in Houston, Tx, but I guess it is in the 80's. I just made 10 gallons of porter and I'm already wanting to brew more!
 
Im brewing up this clone on Weds...(Veterans Day) I tweeked the recipe and substituted all fuggles for my hops (Since I have them, but it took my IBU's to just under 20) Cut the Barley out completely and cut the crystal 20 in half (Since thats all I have.) I am also gonna mash at 157-158 for a lil fuller body.

I cant wait to get it goin....newcastle has to be one of my favs!! :mug:
 
I did a quick conversion to extract in beersmith, and it told me to use table sugar as a substitute for the flaked corn. Will that have flavor implications? I'm not familiar with flaked corn as an ingredient
 
So I made this with an OG of 1.048. A little over a week ago, I transferred to secondary and it was 1.020. I just checked it, 8 days later and it's still at 1.020. Shouldn't it be lower? It's been in a pretty constant 72 degree chamber.

Tastes good though! :p
 
So I made this with an OG of 1.048. A little over a week ago, I transferred to secondary and it was 1.020. I just checked it, 8 days later and it's still at 1.020. Shouldn't it be lower? It's been in a pretty constant 72 degree chamber.

Tastes good though! :p
I actually asked some questions when this happened to me as well. Mine finished at 1.014 @ about 3.5% abv. This isn't a very big beer. For a brown such as this to finish between 1.015-1.020 isn't abnormal. I must say I'm really enjoying it as a low abv beer. It's low abv, but big flavor (I mashed at 156).

I am also gonna mash at 157-158 for a lil fuller body.

I also mashed at around 156 or so. I brewed this with my Swmbo's bro-in-law and I decided to bottle it b/c he wanted to take some. I let it primary for two weeks and omitted the gelatin. It is wonderful! I've still got about a half of a case, but they're not going to last very long. This is some delicious stuff! It's probably going to be my house brown.
 
got mine complete with 81% efficiency and OG of 1053....bubbling away nicely. I mashed at 158 ish...had thermometer problems.....
 
I'm going to try my above recipe with the exception of 1 oz of willamette hops instead of 1/2 oz of Target. I'll let you know in about 8 weeks how it turns out :p

Bottled tonight. It tasted a little roastier than I anticipated since I omitted the roasted barley, but otherwise it was yummy. I'll check on it again after 3 weeks in the bottle.
 
I went through all of the pages of this post pretty extensively when I was getting ready to make my brew, taking notes and all. But I don't remember seeing anything about the gelatin addition to the secondary. I've never heard of doing this before, so I'm wondering:
What kind of gelatin (just lik plain ol' Knox?), how much, what is it supposed to do, is it necessary? All of that basic and necessary questions. I'm about done with primary, so hopefully I can get a response within the next couple of days... Can anyone answer those?
 
Just bottled this bad boy. Our OG came in way high: 1.050. FG was 1.011, which should give us about 5.3% ABV after bottle carbing.
First time I ever tried the gelatin trick, and I gotta say, I have never made beer this clear before. Amazingly clear. Awesome.
Took a few sips from the graduated cylinder -- tasted a bit overly-malty, but I think there was some of that sweetness that was trying to come through. Hoping bottle conditioning will mellow it out and make it reasonably close to original Newcastle.
 
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